Facebook Announces Improved Pay, Benefits for Content Moderators

May 14, 2019 / Andrew Hutchinson

At Facebook's size, content moderation is always going to pose a challenge. While the company continues to improve its machine learning and artificial intelligence tools to help filter out offensive material before anyone has to actually see it, there are many cases where this is simply not possible, and human review is required.The problem with that is that continued exposure to such material can have significant mental health impacts, which The Verge's Casey Newton outlined in his harrowing piece looking at what Facebook's moderators experience.From Newton's report: "Collectively, the employees described a workplace that is perpetually teetering on the brink of chaos. It is an environment where workers cope by telling dark jokes about committing suicide, then smoke weed during breaks to numb their emotions. It’s a place where employees can be fired for making just a few errors a week and where those who remain live in fear of the former colleagu...